OpenCloud launches Rhino Sentinel to help operators boost service innovation

Telecoms software innovator OpenCloud today announced the launch of its latest product – Rhino Sentinel, a service layer suite for Communication Service Providers (CSPs).

Based on open-standards, Rhino Sentinel provides CSPs with rapid, simple and cost effective development, and maintenance, of innovative new services, applications and charging models for existing legacy, and IP network elements. The platform is also ideal for CSPs wanting to launch spot promotions for messaging, voice and data services to drive uptake and attract retail and business subscribers, without impacting the back-end charging systems.

As mobile networks and devices have developed, CSPs all over the globe are competing to attract and retain customers with the development and deployment of innovative services and applications that add real value to subscribers.

In a recent survey, commissioned by OpenCloud and conducted by Heavy Reading, 100 international CSPs were asked how important various service innovation goals were to them. The most important goals were to increase the frequency and speed up service innovation, while lowering its cost and strengthening in-house capability. These goals were rated as ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ by the majority of CSPs. OpenCloud’s Rhino Sentinel platform addresses these issues by allowing CSPs to harness pre-built services or major service functions that can be used, re-developed, extended or incorporated within other services – all on top of Rhino’s existing open and powerful development environment.

The two key barriers that can prevent CSPs from achieving innovation are the complexity of linking the development of new services back to the network’s charging function, and the dependence on a single vendor for core-network upgrades and software applications. Rhino Sentinel addresses these issues by simplifying the interplay between the service layer and the charging function in the network, and by removing the dependence on a single vendor. This provides CSPs with the much sought after ability not only to innovate services, but also innovate their charging models as well.

The Heavy Reading survey revealed the two most critical charging capabilities that help support service innovation. 67 per cent of CSPs feel it is, ‘the ability to enable differential charging based on location and device’, while 50 per cent stated it is, ‘the ability to roll out dynamic, short-term promotions.’

OpenCloud’s VP of Product Marketing Jonathan Bell, said: “CSPs now require new ways to introduce innovation into their service portfolio in order to satisfy customer demand for exciting new applications. The open nature of Rhino Sentinel enables CSPs to choose how this innovation is carried out – whether through in-house teams or through a free-market of independent third party developers. This approach enables operators to break ‘vendor lock-in’ and put CSPs back in control of their roadmaps and innovation timescales; all while dramatically reducing costs.”

He added: “OpenCloud has a rich heritage in supporting independent development – and this has continued with Rhino Sentinel, which, as well as the service execution platform, also includes an additional toolset that supports developers and eases the development process. By utilising the Rhino Sentinel platform, the time and cost of service innovation can be reduced to one tenth of the time, and cost, of traditional service layer solutions.”